Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Blackberry Stout the Second

Update: So tasty. So very, very tasty. Roasty toasty malt flavor with just enough berry flavor for it to be recognizable but not overpowering. Will definitely go for round 3 on this one.---The old blackberry stout was such a hit after it aged for a couple months that I thought I'd try it again. This time, instead of spending nye $30 to have the berry puree shipped from Maryland (seriously, it's the one berry that MoreBeerdoesn't supply), I spent about $10 at Trader Joe's for berries. The stout kit I used as a base last time has changed a little (hop shortage, anyone?), and we left out the gypsum, since that just made the beer chalky and is primarily for mash water adjustment, anyway. The main difficulty of the method I used was that I didn't have a sanitized strainer on hand to scoop my berries out of the wort. This meant that I clogged the spout on my bucket and had to pour from the bucket into a funnel. That actually went surprisingly well with an extra pair of hands to help. The only other issue was the berries clogged the funnel at the end of the pour, and I had to hop (as in a grain hopper, not as in hops) the funnel so the berries would fall through.

Steep grains 30 minutes in 4 gallons water at 160±10ºF, add water to 6 gallons, bring to boil. Add extract and 1 oz Glacier. At 20 minutes, toss in clarifier. At 10 minutes, dunk in chiller and berries. I'd recommend bringing the berries up to at least room temp first, as the cold berries set my boil back about 10 minutes. More hops at 1 minute. Chill. Ferment. Secondary after 1 week to get the beer off the berries. After bottle/keg, give it one month to condition, drink within four months.